Fisk sends Nadeem on a hunt for Matt that causes problems for Foggy and Karen, while the Kingpin looks into Poindexter's history.
A look into Poindexter's life starts this episode; everything is perfect, and he fixes anything askew, even a photo that tilts when he closes the door behind him.
Out at the docks, the taxi from last episode is fished out, and Donovan reports to Fisk there was no body; since Matt is blind, Donovan figures he was washed away. Fisk shows him footage of Matt fighting in the prison, and though Donovan's sources confirmed the lawyer is blind, Fisk is sure he could still be alive. The FBi enters to talk their deal, promising to not press charges against Vanessa, return personal belongings to Fisk, and give him privileges, but over time. Noting the FBI's sacrifice, Fisk agrees to keep cooperating, and claims Matt is a criminal he had laundering money and committing crimes to help him in court. Sometime later, Poindexter is jogging and stalking his "girlfriend," Julie Barnes (Holly Cinnamon), who was also in the photo on his wall. The FBI breaks into Matt's apartment, and though there's a pile of still-wet clothes on the floor, he doesn't seem to be there. Meanwhile, Karen visits Felix Manning, offering a chance to deny laundering Fisk's money, calling him a "fixer" with numerous clients, and Fisk will soon drop him. Manning immediately shuts her down by listing off her painful childhood and where she grew up, then threatens her by correcting he doesn't fix problems; he makes them go away. Karen sees two men following as she leaves and goes for her gun, but a black SUV drives up. Revealed to be the FBI, she goes with them to Matt's after they disarm her. There, Nadeem questions her about Matt and why she's been paying his rent, despite not filing a missing persons report when he disappeared for months. When she says Matt has no reason to be on the run, Nadeem asks when they started working for Fisk when they were "Nelson & Murdock," and she says they never did. Nadeem produces paperwork about the case they took unknowingly for Fisk, and she corrects that "some executive" hired them. She then becomes nervous when Nadeem shows a picture of James Wesley and asks if it was him, but she nonchalantly plays as if she vaguely recalls him. Irritated at the questioning, Karen lists off Manning, Red Lion, and Vancorp, saying Nadeem should ask about them instead of harassing innocent lawyers for Fisk. Though Karen says Fisk is using him, Nadeem demands proof, so she asks if she's under arrest and leaves when he says no.
Back in the hotel, Donovan brings Fisk a box of classified files on Poindexter, revealing he was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
The episode becomes a black and white flashback that shows a young Poindexter (Cameron Mann), or "Dex" for short, tossing a baseball at the home for boys he lived at. His coach Bradley (Gary Hilborn) shows up, wondering why he's not dressed for the coming game; he gets through the boy's slump by giving him a new glove. After showing his new pitch, Dex is at the game, wearing a hat with the symbol of his comic counterpart, and he is upset to learn Bradley wants to bench him and let another boy finish out the game. Breaking down as he believes pitching a perfect game will bring his parents back, Dex goes to the bench in a huff. When he angrily bounces a ball off the fence that hits and kills Bradley, he is subsequently sent to therapy. His Doctor, Eileen Mercer (Heidi Armbruster), gets him to admit how he felt and that he meant to hit Bradley; she believes he has a borderline personality disorder with psychopathic tendencies. She confuses him saying it wasn't his fault, then explains that because of his parents' death, he grew up without someone to teach him right from wrong. She teaches him about empathy, then the shot cuts to her years later, when she's been diagnosed with cancer, a condition that upsets Dex (Conor Proft). Raging about her death, he says he wants to kill her for dying; she calms him by reminding him he has tapes of their sessions for comfort and a structured life plan, suggesting he find a new mentor to help him. Dex eventually goes to work at a suicide hotline, where he met Julie; while talking with a suicidal man, he goes off-script and almost suggests the man use his gun not on himself, but on the source of his anger: his step-father. Fisk soon comes out of the flashback, looking at photos someone took while Dex was jogging along behind Julie. Donovan asks what the files are for, and Fisk explains that his plans are halted while he's stuck as the city's scapegoat, so he's found them a new villain. In what remains of the episode, Dex lands a date with Julie that doesn't go as planned, and while Foggy and Karen stress after Nadeem pays the former a visit as well, we get a look at what happened to Matt after the taxi crashed.
As you can tell from this post, the vast majority of episode five focuses on Poindexter, told in a creative flashback style.
Of course Fisk isn't somehow looking into the past and standing on the sides while Poindexter grows up, but it's a great way of showing us what he's reading without having to actually watch Fisk just read, or listen to him reading out loud or mentally. Doing that, along with being boring, would also prevent us from sympathizing as much with Poindexter; as it is, we see the pain he felt as a kid and how he changed. It's worth noting that there was a bit of a flaw in Mercer's method of teaching Dex about empathy based on what we saw, which shows up as the episode continues. Rather than explain to Dex that empathy is trying to put yourself in another person's shoes, she gives him a cookie-cutter response, similar to the script he later uses while working at the hotline. This doesn't really teach him empathy, but rather a way to mimic it, which sociopaths and psychopaths often learn to do so they can blend in, foreshadowing Dex's continued lack of empathy up to this point. He even uses the phrase she suggested during the date with Julie, a sign about the kind of relationship the two have. At the same time as this, Mercer's teachings in a way taught Dex to fear being alone, and always seek out a mentor, a potentially dangerous idea that foreshadows how Fisk is now manipulating him. Speaking of this, I find the title to have a clever double meaning about what is happening with Dex and Fisk. Obviously "Perfect Game" is talking about how Dex believed as a kid that pitching a perfect game would bring his parents back. This is obviously a mindset he kept over time, as judging by his perfect apartment that matches his calm mental state at the start of the episode and devolves later, he has a problem with being perfect. However, the title could also be seen as an allusion to the story The Most Dangerous Game, about a man who decides to hunt a human as his prey. Like the hunter, Fisk is circling Dex, and from what he's learned, he believes him to be the "perfect" scapegoat due to his frustration with not being seen as a hero, and his desire to have a mentor makes him perfect to manipulate, not dangerous. With the protagonists, there is dramatic irony in what we see happening with Fisk manipulating Nadeem. As the audience, we of course know that Matt didn't do the things Fisk said, but there's no way Nadeem could know he's Daredevil, and the information he has does a good job pointing the finger at him. Karen and Foggy obviously got nervous because of Wesley and Matt's secret, respectively, and while Nadeem knows Matt lives a double life, he's wrong about which one due to the misleading and incorrect information he's received. At the same time, it's still rather hilarious to me watching Nadeem try to be intimidating and demanding respect from Fisk and others. The smug way he talks to Karen about the evidence he has just seems comical due to the audience knowing he's completely wrong and being manipulated. It's also frustrating because of how close he is to falsely imprisoning Matt, but it's still funny because he thinks he's an incredible and smart agent, yet Fisk is spoonfeeding him the cases that are successful as well as lies. Karen and Foggy are in tight spots now just like Matt, as the former is, as a reminder, the one who killed Wesley, and the latter is running for D.A., yet is now suspected of helping with Matt's "crimes," especially after the prison stunt with his bar ID. With a creative way to share great backstory, and Fisk succeeding in manipulating everyone in his favor, the group's future just got more tense and interesting.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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